Cory Arcangel and the Mysteries of Continuous Partial Awareness

December 11, 2008

I remember reading about media-artist and sometime Springsteen-interpreterCory Arcangel’s plans for a New Museum performance entitled “Continuous Partial Awareness,” meaning, quote: “You know, like, when you have three IM windows open, two e-mail in boxes dinging away, are texting five different people, and also have five tabs open on your browser, each with updated content.” I’m not referencing this at all because that exact thing is happening to me right now.

Anyway, this useful idea comes with a lecture, which is bootlegged over at sometime Voice writer Ed Halter’s blog. It’s a Powerpoint lecture about “all things that I, uh, well, uh, hold on, I have to collect myself,” which, after Arcangel in fact collects himself, takes the form of a trip through every idea the artist ever had but never used–“One idea, every 30, 36 seconds.” If you can listen to this while working you are a Continuous Partial Awareness champion. [Rhizome]